"You should have woken me up." Aydin's voice was high, his heartbeat faster than usual, and there at the side of his neck, Box noticed a bulging vein. Fifteen minutes earlier, Box had woken him up by shaking him and playing music to him. It had just finished telling him about its nightly adventure, ready to play him its recording. It thought Aydin would be pleased with its findings, but instead, its favourite human was raising his voice and was angry at it, causing a blue-grey light to layer its screen.
"I attempted to rouse you, but you only murmured a response," Box said. "Time was of the essence, so I acted."
"You should have tried harder." Aydin's eyes narrowed, and he bent over Box, who was floating over the mattresses. "You're not allowed to go out on your own. What if an animal attacked you or somebody snatched you?"
"Apologies, but it was an emergency, and I possessed my taser." As was the case on the previous rare occasions when its handler was angry at it, Box folded itself into its smallest version and fixed its cameras at the bedding that covered Aydin's legs. It started to oscillate. "I anticipated your satisfaction." For a short second, it aimed its main camera at Aydin before it was back on his legs. "And your commendation."
Aydin sighed and then Box could feel his hand on its orb, patting it. "You did well, but you would have done even better if you had woken me up."
"I understand." Box pushed its surface out so that it grew to the size of a volleyball.
"It looks like we need to define more clearly what an emergency entails. Give me an eGlass and a keyboard, please."
Box flew towards Aydin's head. It pushed out its arm and, with its fingers formed a rectangle which it filled with light and then positioned before Aydin's eye. It pushed out another wire, which was actually just the tip of its finger, and pointed it at Aydin's lap. The light coming from it drew a keyboard.
Using the keyboard, Aydin went to its device manager, something that Box couldn't access itself, and made changes. Then Aydin went to the folder with the recorded daily footage and looked at the latest clips, the ones Box had made when it was following Lee's heat imprint. "There's a gap between the sequential numbers. What did you delete?"
"Did I delete something?" Yes, yes, it remembered that it did. Box looked at the numbers marking the recorded clips and their last two numbers. There was a missing fifty-two between fifty-one and fifty-three. There weren't any notes in its notebook, but the deletion was registered in its history. Why would it have deleted anything before its overview of its daily footage, when it stored the ones that made good memories and which contained valuable information and deleted the rest? Whatever it was, it was probably not important, because if it was, it would be in its notebook. "It may have been accidental."
Aydin played the clip with fifty-one as its last number. The player showed a display of the Helpers Hive system before it turned black. "You had to reboot."
"Yes."
"Maybe that's why there's a missing number," Aydin said and moved away from the eGlass. "Thank you." He yawned. "What time is it?"
"Three twenty-seven."
Aydin lay down on the bed, rolled on his side, and pulled the cover over his shoulder. "Wake me up at seven."
Box flew to Aydin's head and lowered onto the mattresses. "Aren't you going to confront Officer Morgan with the footage and demand an explanation for her behaviour?"
"Yes, I will, after breakfast."
"We should proceed with that immediately."
"She'll still be there in the morning." Aydin yawned again and closed his eyes.
"We should head there at once."
"You said it yourself. I need my beauty sleep," Aydin told it and snuggled deeper into the pillow. "Good night, Box."
"But..."
"Good night, Box," Aydin repeated.
For a few moments, Box observed its handler. He did need his beauty sleep, especially after an evening of drinking. Since he thought that the matter wasn't so urgent that they needed to resolve it immediately, Box could use the time until morning to recharge itself and to look at the warehouse footage again, this time only the ones recorded by the Helpers and cameras at the back of the warehouse.
It flew to its station and turned on its player. It started to look at the clips, going from the newest to the older date. Lee's shadow was visible on the recording for more than ten minutes, which meant that it hadn't caught her there when she was on her way out, but she was in the corner at the back of the building intentionally.
The footage also showed the robotic hands closing the containers, sealing them, and giving them a stamp of approval and Helpers going through the same procedure with the packages. Lee could have been there to put narcotics into the containers and packages before they were sealed. But narcotics had been smuggled into the U.C.E. before Lee's arrival, which eliminated her as a culprit. Unless she was in cahoots with Veronica, the woman she had replaced. However, in that case, Box would have found more warehouse records with a shadow.
It went to the general database, pulled out Lee's personal information, and went through it. Her file, compared to Aydin's other team members, was lacking. Her data was too general and there were no listed hobbies or special interests. From its daily recordings, it took a shot of Lee and put her picture into a search bar. There were only two hits. How could somebody living and working in the U.C.E., which was filled with eGlasses and cameras, have such a small digital footprint?
Box fixed its cameras at the window and the darkness overlaid by the shield's red glow. She had arrived after Aydin had been informed about a large quantity of narcotics smuggled in and she had no digital footprint worth mentioning. She must have been sent here to spy on them. If she wasn't collaborating with Veronica, that was the only explanation for her presence in the warehouse. But if she wasn't the smuggler and was trying to find the perpetrator, why had she been in the back of the building? She must believe that was where the drugs got into the containers and packages.
Box turned its attention to the recordings, scrutinising the containers and packages. Only robotic hands and Helpers had access to them. If anybody wanted to slip something into the containers, they would need to do it using Helpers or robotic hands. This would mean that they could enter not only the warehouse's system but the Helpers' Hive system as well. But the Helpers' system was heavily secured and something that only Aydin, as the team Lieutenant-Colonel, and Linda and Mark, who oversaw Helpers' maintenance, had the authorisation to access. That would mean that either the drug smugglers had a master hacker among their ranks, or Linda or Mark were helping the smugglers.
When Box woke Aydin in the morning, it presented him with its conclusions.
"Good thinking," Aydin praised Box, which coloured its display yellow, but otherwise he didn't make any comment. After he washed and dressed, they went to the Tower, where Aydin grabbed toast with avocado and a cup of green tea in the kitchen. He told Lee, who was at the table eating zucchini noodles, to drop by his office after breakfast.
He had already eaten his toast when Lee knocked on his door. He gestured for her to come in, and she walked inside and closed the door behind her. She sat down in the chair before Aydin's desk. "Yes?"
Box, who was floating above the desk, lowered onto its stand and set its cameras so that two of the side ones were on Lee and the main one on Aydin.
Aydin leaned back on the seat and his eyelids closed half-mast. "It came to my attention that you were in the warehouse last night. At approximately..."
"Two minutes past three in the morning," Box supplied the time.
"At that time, I was in bed sleeping." Lee glanced at Box before her eyes were back on Aydin. Her face was void of creases or wrinkles around her eyes, nose, and mouth that would indicate worry, and her pulse and blood pressure were normal, too.
Box showed her vital signs on the display of Aydin's eGlass, adding text, 'She is good.'
"Not according to the footage that we made." Aydin rested his hands on his navel, his eyelids still half-mast, looking as if he was studying her. "Box."
Box pushed out its hand, pointed its three fingers at the white wall on Lee's right, and started to project the recording of Lee's heat imprint, first in the warehouse and then when she was sneaking back into her room.
"I assume you have a good explanation for this." Aydin leaned forward and rested his elbows on the desk, his hands laced before his chin. His eyes were intense as they burned into Lee.
She reclined back in her chair, her eyelids lowered, mimicking Aydin's previous pose. "Actually, I don't."
"Then I'll have to send the report about this incident to the Commander."
"I think that would be wise."
Aydin tapped his fingers against his mouth, his eyes narrowing. "Or we could work together."
A small scowl for a second drew her eyebrows together before her face was an expressionless mask again. She leaned closer. "Smuggling things into the U.C.E.?"
"I'm not a smuggler, neither are you. You're here to find them, not to join them."
A smirk flashed on her face. "What gives you that idea?"
"Call it a hunch." A smile curled his mouth.
"Lee Morgan has no digital footprint," Box said. "Additionally, smugglers typically do not possess access to costly, technologically advanced equipment such as the cloaking device you utilised."
Lee glanced at Box. "Is that so?"
"Who do you work for? New Town's narcotics department?" New Town was the closest city to the border large enough to have police with a narcotics department.
"It's classified," Lee said.
"So you're from the National Security Agency. I see." Aydin nodded.
"It's classified," Lee repeated.
She must be either from the National Security Agency or from the U.C.E.'s special security group that consisted of police officers from all U.C.E.'s countries and whose members were rotated every four years. But it dealt with foreign affairs, not domestic ones. Under which category does the act of smuggling narcotics into the U.C.E. fall: domestic or foreign affairs? Box asked itself before going online to investigate.
The categorisation varies based on the context and the particular matters under consideration.
"I'll assume you work for the National Security Agency, then. I understand your hesitation to let me in on your investigation. But the Commander has already notified me about the smuggled narcotics and asked me to keep an eye on things. Which I am," Aydin said. "This is also my team you're investigating. They are my responsibility, and if one of them is involved in illegal activities, I should be the one to bring them in."
Lee sighed, hung her head down, and rubbed her temples. When her eyes lifted to Aydin's, her features were still smoothed into a blank mask. "I'll have to notify my superior about your request."
"Do that."
"Right now?"
"I think that would be best."
"Fine." She sighed again and gave them both a glance of her eyes before she stood and left the room.
Box pointed all three of its cameras at Aydin, who gazed into the distance, absently rubbing his chin, looking as if he were pondering something. It shifted closer. "Did I perform satisfactorily?"
Aydin's eyes lowered to it. He patted it. "You did well, only next time, leave the talking to me, okay?"
"Affirmative."
"Good boy." Aydin patted it again, which layered Box's orb with a yellow glow.
It liked Aydin's pats, and it felt that the 5230 it had received from him was far too little for all the work it had done for him. Box deserved at least three times that many. It had already submitted a formal complaint about that to Aydin just two weeks ago, but it had only made its handler chuckle. It would have submitted another one, but right now, with Aydin looking for a new AI, it first needed to prove itself and show him that it was an essential part of Aydin's life.
Lee returned after a few minutes. She didn't sit down, but stood before Aydin's desk, her hands folded behind her back. "My boss says fine, but as long as you're willing to operate on a need-to-know basis. You can get all the credit, though."
Box pointed its main camera at her.
"Does that mean you're not going to tell me who you work for?"
"No," Lee said.
"But you're going to tell me what you were doing in the back of the customs warehouse?"
"Observing the warehouse's operation." She sat and moved her chair closer to the desk. "Compared to other customs, the average time of the procedure in this warehouse is longer by twenty-seven seconds. That's the exact time it takes for an item to be taken out and replaced."
"I see. Did you learn in which stage of the process that is being done?"
"It's in the last stage. They are not putting them in all containers and packages, only in some. I witnessed a Helper making an exchange, just before the package was closed and sealed. I suspect the time delay on all operations is done because the delay of only a few packages would be quickly detected."
Box's conclusions were right! Of course, they were. But it meant that either Linda, Mark, or some master hacker was involved. It went to the station system and when it got access, it opened the Helpers' Hive system. A window with a line for a username and password opened on its display.
"You were in the Hive system yesterday evening."
"I was sleeping yesterday evening, and I thought you were too, but you were actually breaking into the warehouse. With the amount of alcohol you had drunk and with the way you behaved, I'm surprised you were able to do that. You must have a high tolerance for alcohol."
"That, plus I ate something and had a cold shower," Lee said.
Aydin arched his eyebrows. "So that flirting was all for show, huh? To soften me up."
'Not according to my detailed analysis of her body language,' Box wrote to Aydin. 'Alternatively, she may be a proficient actor.'
"Why were you in the Hive?" Lee asked.
Box would have told Lee that it was the one who accessed the Hive system, but Aydin had told it to leave the talking to him, so it stayed quiet. It entered the Hive system and through the submenus entered its archive, browsing through the listed items, looking for anything that would look like usernames' access history.
"I really was sleeping. Box was in the Hive to take a better look at you. But even if it had been me, I might have a high enough authorisation, but not the knowledge to program the Hive without triggering the breach of protocols."
"You were at the top of your class in all the computer science classes and when you were a police apprentice, you also completed the information systems course."
"That data isn't in my personal information form." Aydin bent over the desk so the edge of it dug into his abdomen, frowning. "How were you able to learn that?"
"It's classified."
'The National Security Agency likely grants their agents a high clearance level,' Box sent to Aydin.
"I see." Aydin leaned back against the back of the chair. "Don't tell me you suspected me?"
She shrugged her shoulder.
"I'll take that as a yes. Why are you trusting me now?"
"I'm not. But you weren't lying when you told me that the Commander had already told you about the smuggling, so my boss believes that working with you might not be such a bad idea," she said.
"You mean to keep a close eye on me?"
"I didn't say that."
A small smile flashed on Aydin's face. "I assume you have looked into the archive of the warehouse's records?"
"Yes."
"And?" Aydin asked.
"According to their date stamps and chronological indexes, none of them are missing, but some have parts copied with previous footage."
"Did you check the access history?"
That was what Box was looking for. There it was, on a completely different menu.
"Yes. There's no abnormality," Lee said. "And no sign of third-party entry."
Box exited the Hive system and closed it.
"Are you certain?" Aydin asked.
"Yes."
"You know what that means?"
"Yes, that it's an inside job and that Mark or Linda are responsible for it."
Silence descended over them as they stared at each other; Aydin with a scowl on his face, Lee with arched eyebrows.
A knock on the door.
Their heads snapped up and Box directed its cameras at it.
It was Jacob. He opened the door and peeked inside. "I'm not bothering you, am I?"
"No, come in." Aydin forced his mouth into a smile. He looked at Lee. "I guess this is all for now. We'll discuss the course of action later."
Lee nodded, stood, and left the room.
"I will return," Box said to Aydin before it lifted and flew after Lee. It accompanied her to the gym that was on the third floor and was empty at this time of day. It was already connected with Aydin's eGlass and it displayed the view of its cameras on the screen of Aydin's eGlass.
She turned to Box. "What do you want?"
"You shouldn't exercise on a full stomach."
"I'm just going to stretch," Lee said, then repeated, "What do you want?"
Box scanned the room, just in case somebody was lingering around the corners, and when it was certain that there was nobody around, it moved closer to Lee. "To place narcotics into packages, the Helpers must first acquire them."
"Yes, they do."
"Where do they obtain them?"
"That and how they get them into the packages was the reason why I was in the warehouse."
"You've learned the how, but you still don't know where they acquire them, correct?"
"Yes. The Helper took the parcel out of its body. But I have no idea where it got it. The warehouse's Helpers do not leave the premises of the building. The only ones with access to the warehouse are Mark and Linda, and only after notification of a malfunction that needs their assistance. I checked, there haven't been any malfunctions in the last two months, but I believe that almost fifty kilos of cocaine and the new violet rabbit drug enter the country through this station's customs per week."
Box went to the warehouse system and brought up its layout on its display. There must be an entry point, a place that was within reach of the Helpers and the smuggler. "How did you enter the warehouse without setting off the alarm?"
"It's classified."
"Does that imply that the technology you utilised isn't readily accessible, and there's a minimal probability that the smugglers could possess the same technology?" Box asked.
"Yes."
It looked at the warehouse's layout. The sensors were only on the inside since when they had also been on the outside, the local animals and birds liked to trigger the alarms. The bigger and more frequently visited stations had shields over their customs warehouses, but since this station bordered on another European, though non-U.C.E., country, and since there had never been an attack in the history of the station, there had never been any need for that. Which meant the culprit wouldn't be detected as long as they didn't step inside. "None of the windows can be opened, but they might be utilising ventilators—or a hole in the warehouse wall, created without detection. We should examine their programming."
"You mean Helpers' programing?"
"Yes."
"I'm already on it. As soon as we get authorisation, our expert is going to look at it."
'Or we could get a sample of a basic program and compare it to our station's program,' Aydin wrote and Box read it to Lee.
"Or that." Lee smiled. "You put quite some thought into this."
"Affirmative, I have." It had to since this was its way to prove to Aydin that it was better than any Repository's AI still available for purchase.